GPL

[Rui Miguel Silva Seabra]

On Tue, Oct 09, 2007 at 08:02:02AM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
> >>>Free Software is also commercial! You can use Free Software to gain money
> >>>even if you release your program under the GPL.
> >>You can sell one copy - but you can't prevent that customer from giving 
> >>away copies to everyone else.  Or you can give the program away yourself 
> >>and sell support.
> >
> >You can charge for as many copies as you want, as much as you can charge it
> >for. You can also charge 0.
> 
> And so can anyone else, once you have released your first copy, so it is 
> likely that you'll be competing against someone charging 0.

Well, I prefer to pay for Hagen Daas or Ben & Jerry's ice cream (which are more
expensive but provide me a better experience) than other cheaper ice creams.

So your problem is not a new one, compete with better service than the others
and price will not be the biggest worry.

> >In any of the cases, you can also charge for support.
> 
> Good programs don't need much support - and who is going to buy a bad one?

People don't happen to be an expert at all programs, and no matter how good
it may be, it may very likely be that the person on the other side can't
afford the time to learn, or only manages support contracts who will bring
people from outside who do the real work, etc...

Actually: this is *exactly* the same as virtually all the proprietary solutions
do. Being Free Software is merely a matter of respecting your customers :)

Regards,
Rui

-- 
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